Tragedy has been averted in the City of Batavia, as citizen efforts help to put out an apartment fire.

It all happened on Pearl Street at about 12:45pm today. City Fire received a report of a working fire at 107 Pearl Street.

The blaze had broken out in Amy Showler’s apartment.

"I was cleaning my floor with bleach, and I went to open up my back window – and I see fire going up the wall," Showler says. "So I grabbed some water and tried putting it out. It wouldn't go out.

"Then I finally found my fire extinguisher. By that time the house was filled with smoke...I couldn't breathe in there."

Showler began using the fire extinguisher as best as she could. That’s when neighbor Cory Paris rushed over to help, too.

"We looked, and saw the flames coming out pretty good," says Paris, who was on a nearby lawn with another young man.

"So we grabbed fire extinguishers and ran over," he recalled. "People were coming downstairs from (the fire). They were worried about their stuff, so we tried to help them put it out...the flames were pretty big at first."